Pentecost 4A2023
Matthew 10:24-39
Today, Jesus commands the disciples to follow him, to take up their cross, to love him more than their mother or father. The hardest of all? I guess it’s not really a command so much as an observation. Jesus says: Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. The implied invitation to the disciples is to lose their lives, not because doing so is a moral good but because doing so, ironically, brings life.
At the pastors’ bible study this week, after we read this passage, one of the pastors asked: I mean, is Jesus really saying that following him involves giving up our lives, like dying?
In November 1967, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached during Sunday morning worship at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta: “I say to you this morning that if you have never found something so dear and so precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live. You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you or shoot at you or bomb your house. So you refuse to take the stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. You died when you refused to stand up for justice.” Neither Jesus nor Dr. King advocated martyrdom. Neither Jesus nor Dr. King wanted to die an early death. Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on the day before his crucifixion when he prayed that God would take this cup from him. But neither Jesus nor Dr. King would let the threat of death stop them from doing that to which God had called them.
To lose our lives for Jesus’ sake, to follow Jesus in this way has always seemed hard to me. I love these words of Dr. King, and I have always loved how hard it is to follow Jesus, how hard it is to stand up for justice, how much following Jesus into love and justice requires of us. But lately, I have begun to realize that, at least for me, following Jesus, losing my life for his sake is, maybe, less work and, maybe, more surrender. We hold onto so much. It’s not just our lives we hold onto, avoiding death with all our might. We hold onto our own perspectives and carefully avoid any person or news source that might present conflicting evidence. We hold onto fears and allow them to drive us to actions out of sync with our values. We hold onto our identities, attuned to what is popular or not within our social circles. We hold onto ways of doing things even when they don’t serve us. We hold onto material possessions even when we don’t use them anymore. We hold onto time for our own purposes. We hold onto our righteous indignation when others cross us or refuse to forgive. What if we let go of being right and listened deeply to the person with whom we disagree? What if we let go of our fears and approached the world with an attitude of trust? What if we sought authenticity over popularity? What if we tried new ways of doing things? What if we let go of possessions we no longer use? What if we were open to people and situations around us, that we might let God direct our time? What if we saw others with compassion and forgave them for simply being human and limited, just like us? What if we let go of our lives?
Those who find their life will lose it, Jesus says, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. Jesus invites us to follow him, invites us to lose our lives not because he wants to make discipleship hard. He invites us to lose our lives that we may find life, life marked by joy and generosity and other fruit of the spirit.
This call is not simply for our personal lives but for our common life here at Esperanza. In order to discover life, a common life marked by joy and generosity and other fruit of the spirit, we let go. We let go of being right. We let go of cliques and instead welcome every single person, member or not, Lutheran or not, fitting our social norms or not. We let go of “the way we’ve always done it.” We let go of the stuff that no longer serves God’s mission here. We let go of our agendas—maybe our agenda of getting more people to come to worship, for real, letting go of that—and instead allow God to drive our agenda. We let go of offense and others’ mistakes while also speaking directly with one another and holding one another accountable in gentle ways. In so doing, we might find life, a common life marked by joy and generosity and other fruit of the spirit.
I invite you to practice surrender with me by putting your feet flat on the floor and your palms up on your knees or legs. You may close your eyes or just look down at your open hands. Imagine someone talking with you and you wishing to contradict them or to simply share a good point while that person is still speaking. Imagine the energy of wanting to speak fill you. Imagine taking a breath and opening your mouth. Now imagine pausing, letting that person finish their thought, and waiting a beat before you begin talking.
Imagine someone suggesting we do something a new way here at Esperanza. Imagine the old way is one you love, maybe even one you suggested or created or worked hard on. Imagine your hurt or maybe your anger or maybe the wall forming inside of you just listening to someone suggest something new. Now tell yourself: God called us to do that ministry that way in the past. But God is always doing new things, and maybe, God is doing something new now. Tell yourself: Doing something new does not invalidate anything that came before. Imagine asking genuine questions about the suggested new approach.
Finally, imagine a grumpy friend, family member, or Esperanza community member. Imagine their scowl and their cold, brittle presence. Imagine judgmental or critical or disrespectful words coming out of their mouth. Imagine a desire to strike back or a desire to triumphantly call out their bad behavior well up within you. Now remember that this person has stressors in their life, just like you. Remember this person has likely experienced traumas they are still working on resolving, just like you. Remember this person may just be having a bad day, just like you sometimes have. Imagine asking this person: How are you doing?
Jesus said: Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. Finding life, that life marked by joy and generosity and other fruit of the spirit is not a work to do but a gift to surrender to. Thanks be to God! Amen.